Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To experience or be subjected to.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To go or move under or beneath. To bear up against; endure with firmness; sustain without yielding or giving way; suffer; bear; pass through: as, to undergo great toil and fatigue; to undergo pain; to undergo a surgical operation.
  • To be subjected to; go through; experience: as, to undergo successive changes.
  • To be the bearer of; partake of; enjoy. To undertake; perform; hazard. To be subject to; underlie.
  • To endure trial, pain, or the like with firmness; bear up against evils.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To go or move below or under.
  • transitive verb To be subjected to; to bear up against; to pass through; to endure; to suffer; to sustain.
  • transitive verb obsolete To be the bearer of; to possess.
  • transitive verb obsolete To undertake; to engage in; to hazard.
  • transitive verb obsolete To be subject or amenable to; to underlie.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, obsolete To go or move under or beneath.
  • verb transitive To experience; to pass through a phase.
  • verb transitive To suffer or endure; bear with.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb pass through

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English undergon, from Old English undergān ("to undergo, undermine, ruin"), equivalent to under- +‎ go. Cognate with Dutch ondergaan ("to undergo, perish, sink"), German untergehen ("to perish, sink, undergo"), Swedish undergå ("to undergo, go through").

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Examples

  • Did McCain undergo some sea change of torture opinion after voting YEA on the Military Commissions Act of 2006?

    “Life is not 24″ 2007

  • For a second -- I bending down, she stretching up -- our faces were neighbors, and I had time to see her expression undergo several lightning changes -- surprise, incredulity, and a few others not as easy to read -- before she retired, leaving Tibe to me.

    The Chauffeur and the Chaperon Karl Anderson 1901

  • Latin undergo an uncounted variation of termination, suggesting so many different ideas in addition to the four primary ones.

    Note XIV 1803

  • Besides, a pony-carriage that is intended only to carry a light weight, and to run over smooth turf or a good road, need not be built so strongly as a travelling carriage, which is to convey luggage as well as passengers, and which will be exposed to all the rough treatment it is likely to meet with at inns, as well as the shaking it will probably undergo from the different kinds of roads to be driven over.

    The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845

  • Dombey may explain himself, and relieve the torture I undergo, which is extremely wearing.

    Dombey and Son 2007

  • But Turkish has a slew of Arabic loan words; and so far I have not able to figure out any systematic behind either the formal or semantic changes that Araic word undergo as they are taken over by Turkish or Ottoman if you prefer.

    languagehat.com: ARABIC ETYMOLOGY. 2004

  • He'll have to go some -- undergo, that is, some sort of extradition to come back to Georgia.

    CNN Transcript Jan 9, 2004 2004

  • Pecuniary success is out of the question; and even if they were to offer me a larger fee for next year, I should probably feel bound to decline it: the misery I have to undergo is too great.

    Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt Tr 1888

  • Pecuniary success is out of the question; and even if they were to offer me a larger fee for next year, I should probably feel bound to decline it: the misery I have to undergo is too great.

    Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 2 Richard Wagner 1848

  • From hour to hour I reproach myself for that excess of faith and trustfulness which has led to such distressing consequences; and almost from minute to minute, I hope that Mr Dombey may explain himself, and relieve the torture I undergo, which is extremely wearing.

    Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1841

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